5 dead pheasants, none eatin', what did it?

gonzaga

gonzaga

New member
Went to feed our pheasants today and something killed all 5 of them and didn't touch them to eat them. What do you guys think did it?

I set some traps and hope to catch something coming back to it.
 
Pics might help us decide. Are there tracks?
Were they poisoned? Was it really cold and they froze?
Dogs kill for fun and do not always eat the kill.
 
I did not see any tracks, on the outside or on the inside. Well there were two holes in the fence, one was about the size of a bowling ball, the other a little smaller.
They were not poisoned. It was not that cold, there were feathers scattered about inside the inclosure. It looked like, whatever it was, killed one and as the other ones moved it killed them as well. I set 3 traps out, I funneled two traps on one side and funneled one on the other side. I moved two of the pheasants close to the holes, so hopefully that will entice something, and sprayed some cover scent.

We did lose a hen pheasant about 3 weeks ago. An owl had gotten in there and killed her, BUT it also sat in there and ate the whole thing too. The only thing left was 2 wings and the legs.

I will check the traps in the morning before work.
 
Could be a few different critters. House cat, weasle, coon, sound like the work of a weasle though. None were eaten on at all not even a little.
 
gonzaga,
Did you skin any of them out to look for puncture wounds?
Width of the canine punctures would be a clue.
Check in the morning and let us know if you caught anything.
Thanks,
Mark
 
I raise a couple of hundred chickens every year and have had this happen to me 2 different times and both times it was domestic dogs. Usually a predator will only take what it will eat and come back later for another meal. One time I had a red fox come in on 18 roosters and paralyze 12 of them and kill 4 and take 2 to eat. I thought a domestic dog did this so I sat out the next night and was surprised when a red fox showed up. That red never ate another chicken haha. Whatever killed your pheasants will come back whether a dog or predator so be ready and take care of business.Good luck and let us know the outcome.
 
But a weasel wouldn't need to maake a hole that size. Really none at all. Like the other guy said check the bite marks. On the bird pens I have for training my dogs I had to run a 40" high fence of metal 1" wire. Coons would tear the braided nylon all to [beeep].
 
I found an owl in the coop with the pheasants. It had severed the head of one of the roosters and was appearing to eat on it(head). Nothing else has come into the coop to eat on the pheasants.
 
I lost about 35 chickens earlier this year to a bobcat. The first kill was about 12. The cat killed them and piled most of them up in a corner. I assume that it carried one off as well. Got another 20 or so over the next 3 days. We saw it on 2 different occasions, once with a chicken at about 10:30 am, but didn't have a gun either time. It even figured out how to open the latch on the coop. Finally had to move the remaining chickens and let the dogs out to keep it away.
 
I have herd of coons killing chickens & leaving them lay!

You found an owl in the coop. Is the coop open on top?
Do you think it is what killed them or do you think it was just feeding?
 


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